h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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Family beach time is important. Surfing, kayaking,
swimming or just reading in the sand soaking up the sun.
I
try to make it at least twice a month and it's even better
when friends and extended family can make it with us.
The
beach is my church.
One thing I like to do is throw little
rocks I find on the
beach into the ocean to see how far I can get them. If
there are offshore boulders, I try to see if I can hit them
in
sequence. So it might take me three throws to hit that
one, then 4 to hit the other, "Hey! Got that one on the
first
try!".
But there's a randomness to this that would make it
tough
to have a competition. We've all done the "See who can
hit
it first." game, but this idea makes it a bit more
interesting. The players select an agreed upon first rock
by
hitting it with a laser pointer. This eliminates the
confusion
of trying to agree which rock is the target. Rocks all look
pretty similar. So 5 or six rocks are chosen and agreed to
by the players and the game starts.
First player throws, if he hits the rock he moves to the
next rock for his next turn. If he misses he has to keep
throwing till he hits that rock in the sequence. Then the
next player and the next. First to hit all the rocks wins.
[link]
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This sounds like an absolutely perfect application for a trebuchet ... |
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When is a trebuchet NOT perfectly applicable? |
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// We've all done the "See who can hit it first." game |
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That was popular in my college days. |
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I think throwing rocks is in our DNA. It used to be
how we selected what was for dinner. If you could hit
it with a rock before it scurried into a hole or up a
tree, that's what was on the menu that night. |
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// throwing rocks is in our DNA. // |
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Only since a troupe of proto-hominids spent too long sitting round the Black Monolith... |
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// When is a trebuchet NOT perfectly applicable? // |
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Dentistry seems to offer few, if any, opportunities. |
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Unless you're trying to drum up business, of course. |
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That begs the question "Is superior throwing ability merely a side-effect of human body structure, or has said structure been tweaked by evolution to select for throwing ability ?" |
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It's all natural selection. At caveman school, the schoolground bullies
always selected the best throwers first; the lesser throwers got to be
on the "target" team. This consistently reduced evolutionary
opportunities for the underselected, unless offset by unexpected
growth spurts or, as in my case, a great deal of solitary practice (and
occasional vengeance). |
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//A chimp should be able to throw a 200 MPH fastball// |
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There's a few things working against that. Firstly, their arm
span in absolute, if not relative terms is shorter. Second,
throwing power, like punching originates in the legs. Longer
legs add a lot of potential range of motion and power, esp.
with a run-up, e.g. javelin & cricket. Thirdly, the perfect
release requires outstanding trainable motor control. |
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// throwing rocks is in our DNA. // |
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It's literally my families' motto:
"venimus, vidimus, lapidavimus" |
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That's right - I had it translated into Latin. |
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